Informed military sources said that an African country had provided the Yemeni army with intelligence about the Emirati warship that was targeted and destroyed near Bab al-Mandab on Sunday. “The UAE warship was hit by Yemeni army’s surface-to-surface missile in al-Mukha coastal waters in Ta’iz province,” a Yemeni army source said. The source noted that the Emirati warship was an HSV-2 Swift type of warship that had been used by the US navy in several military operations since 2003 when the US attacked Iraq. “The UAE warship was attacked after the Yemeni army received accurate information about the vessel from an African country,” he added. The source did not mention the name of the African country, but said that Djibouti that was once an ally of the Saudi and UAE forces and helpt them in the war on Yemen has come at odds with them after a dispute occurred between Djibouti air force commander and several Emirati diplomats in late April 2015. He said that after the dispute, the Saudi and UAE troops were expelled from Djibouti and were transferred to neighboring Eritrea.

Earlier on Sunday, military sources in Sana’a confirmed that nearly two dozen Emirati military men have been killed in the Saturday missile attack by the Yemeni army and popular forces on a UAE warship in the waters near Bab al-Mandab. “At least 22 Emirati troops were killed after the Yemeni missiles hit a UAE warship in al-Mukha coastal waters in Ta’iz province,” a military source said. Yemen’s army and popular forces targeted and destroyed an Emirati warship in the waters near Bab al-Mandab Strait on Saturday.

The UAE warship was targeted with Yemeni missiles in the Al-Mukha coastal waters in the province of Ta’iz. Some reports said the warship did not belong to the UAE army and had been rented from the US for the Yemen war. The sunken ship had repeatedly fired rockets at residential areas in Ta’iz province, inflicting casualties and destruction there. Other Saudi-led battleships that were approaching Yemen’s coasts retreated fast following the attack.

The coast of Al-Mukha is located in Bab al-Mandab strait and the Saudi-led forces have been trying hard for several months now to win control over the coastal regions near the waterway.